Connect with Us

National Register

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Program

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources.

The Forsyth County Courthouse is a three-story limestone-sheathed building located in downtown Winston-Salem, the county seat of Forsyth County. Completed in 1926 and expanded on the north and south facades in 1959-1960, it is the third courthouse to stand on the site, the courthouse square, since the county's creation in 1849. Northup & O'Brien, a prominent Winston-Salem architectural firm known for its public buildings, designed the 1926 courthouse-the only one that the firm ever designed. Their successor firm, Lashmit, James, Brown and Pollock designed the 1959-1960 additions. Since the colonial period, North Carolina's counties have served as the base of political power and law; the county courthouse, therefore, is the single most significant governmental building in each of the state's one hundred counties. The Forsyth County Courthouse meets National Register Criterion A for its association with the important functions of county administration as the local seat of government and center of law. Besides the usual court functions, including courtrooms, judge's chambers, and records storage, the courthouse also contained offices for a few county government agencies. The building retains a good deal of integrity despite minor interior alterations in 1974 to create additional county government offices. The period of significance extends from the completion of the courthouse in 1926 to 1963 reflecting the long period of its role in local government and law. The building's associations during the past fifty years is not of exceptional significance.

Properties are listed in the National Register of Historic Places under four criteria: A, B, C, and D. For information on what these criterion are and how they are applied, please see our Bulletin on How to Apply the National Register Criteria